Farmers across Somerset are being invited to bid in the UK’s first countywide auction for works to help stop flooding. The auction will be run online from February 26 - March 12 at www.nfmauction.org.uk.

Pioneering work to slow the flow of water from the Quantock Hills down to the Somerset Levels is being funded by Somerset Rivers Authority. The project is partly a reaction to three unusually intense, localised storms that washed away around 1,200 tonnes of soil and gravel.